Month: May 2015

Today, like most days when I’m procrastinating from the world, I was lurking through my facebook feed. This feed, besides posts from friends, consists of shared articles of real world struggles from human to animal. I keep connected to rock bands I favor, share music that speaks to me each day, find and share quotes that remind me of my own life or a fictional character’s that can sometimes inspire, and anything and everything that can put a smile on my face. I’m not up for publishing what I ate for breakfast or whine like a little bitch to people who don’t give a fuck about my menstrual pains or why I hated school as a child. I don’t force my thoughts on people, but choose to share it with either those who matter, like Wifey and few other close friends, and my husband when he’s not mesmerized by his PS4. Here, people choose to read about my random bouts of insanity and perhaps laugh and judge me to the harshest level imaginable or perhaps release a sigh of relief in knowing they are not alone. If some are lucky they may even find something entertaining here.

But, I’m off track now. So…scrolling through facebook feed. I came across Kevin Smith’s and it wasn’t anything I expected. It wasn’t an actor/director/writer pushing his next movie or even sharing an article that hit close to home like Ashton Kutcher does. I can’t help it, I love that guy. He is involved in some wonderful things in the fight to keep our humanity, people don’t even realize. Such as human trafficking and slavery, which is more aggressive and prominent now than it was in the USA back before the Civil War.Here, is a group who Mr. Kutcher is apart of, doing his in the fight against something many probably ignore in order to keep going on in their 9-5 lives in order to make money and pay for the home they barely have time to enjoy because they work 6 days a week. Again, getting off track.

Kevin Smith. Posted this:

I’M NOT HAPPY…

I’ve been around 44 years now, and I’ve been a round boy for most of those years as well. I always imagined thinner people were happier than me – but after losing 80 pounds, I can’t say that I’m any happier than I was as a fat-ass. I’m not complaining, mind you: I just imagined I’d feel differently. I imagined I’d know a different kind of happiness than I’d never known before. Instead, I wound up learning what I consider to be the Secret of Happiness.

As an American, I was raised to believe I was entitled to 100% happiness, all day every day, until I died. But in our Declaration of Independence, we’re granted only the PURSUIT of happiness –
not actual happiness. The founders of this country were smart not to promise the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free too much of a good thing.

The good news is that the pursuit of happiness is way better than being happy any day. The irony is that actual happiness blasts us across our faces, necks and chests all the time – but we’re so busy chasing the elusive notion of what happiness is to us at that moment, we tend to overlook the authentic bliss we create for ourselves and others in the process of simply trying to be happy. And by the time we realize these were, in fact, moments of happiness, it’s too late: those moments are now memories.

Happiness can’t be bottled. It can’t be smoked, swallowed, shot or ejaculated. And there is no end game: you never cross the finish line and are suddenly happy. Even when all your wildest dreams come true, you still pursue happiness.

Thankfully, human beings are at their happiest when they feel they’re at their most productive. So the only real happiness is the pursuit of happiness. When we chase happy, we feel our best. Life is about the journey, not the destination – so while the idea of happiness sounds great, it’s actually the pursuit of happiness that provides the most contentment. And in that pursuit, we are ultimately at our happiest.

Forgive my stoner ramblings and sorry for stating the obvious. But sometimes, you just wanna remind people they’ve already won.

I just like this adorable version of this song and it so happened to come up in my playlist as I was rereading Kevin’s above rant. Maybe it’s just me, but I found it fitting.

So very true, Kevin. This hit very close to home for me and I needed to share.

People ARE happiest when pursuing their goal and maybe for a time they are happy when meeting that goal. More often than not, then they grow board and need something else to go after in order to ‘feel happy.’ Examples of this can be found in careers, life and love especially. How many times have we heard that story of the man or woman who pursued a significant other and found it tantalizing because of the ‘thrill of the chase’ and once ‘conquered’ they moved on to their next challenge? Perhaps it’s not happiness but adrenaline or the endorphins they are addicted to?

Utopian societies just don’t exist and will never. Human emotions and instincts are too complicated and intertwined. Human’s are animals after all and where there is generosity there are those ready to exploit it. Many could argue overpopulation contributes to this increase of negativity and violence and many studies exist out there in regards to how overpopulation contributes to a significant increase in the existence of serial killers. I’ve read the books where studies with mice show that smaller numbers are ideal. They care for each other, protect and nourish but that is until too many are introduced into the mix. Then the mice resort to rape, cannibalism, and murder. It’s not even that they were fighting over food or their lady mice. It wasn’t making sense, except that when we go back to humans as the main focus and not mice, the same thing occurs. And why? People find twisted forms of happiness at harming others. It’s control. It’s beneficial to the predator in some creepy inner workings of their mind. Increase of media and public access to sex and violence gives people more windows to fulfill their fantasies with the “Idiot’s Guide to Getting Away With Murder.”

So, never at some point will it be possible to make the entire world happy. It can be argued that it is due to selfish desires of power and then we fall into a discussion of war and what it is good for. (Absolutely nothing.) Am I the only one who broke out into song? Ehem.

But realistically, not everyone wants the same thing. They may say they do, such as to have money, a career, a loving family, and to never have to worry about being murdered in the street because they looked at someone the wrong way.

Sometimes one’s goals are a fantasy to happiness that leads them astray. All that we need..is often too close to be seen.

Okay, Wifey knows I can not resist.. So I’ll post what lead up to her above scene. Enjoy!~~~~“What are you doing?” Ess chuckled, kneeling down beside Lily who was staring very intently at Puppy in a cold stone expression. She looked so serious and was silent as the grave as the large dog stared right back at her, his expression much more curious and adorable as his ears perked up at Ess’ approach. When Lily didn’t answer, Ess folded her hands in her lap and watched the two for quite some time. Ess felt like it had been forever and went to ask Lily again what she was up to, when the girl tilted her head back, her face stretching in a wide and noisy yawn. Essence quirked a brow, thinking that maybe the child had grown tired of this staring contest, absently stifling a yawn of her own. Puppy’s tail thumped happily over at Lily as he reflected her gesture and let out a soft whine, his jaws parting in a yawn of his own, tongue lolling out of his mouth. Lily broke her statue like pose and began giggling and tackled her fury protector in a massive hug, the dog covering the girl in kisses.

Ess snorted shaking her head. “Lily…what are you doing?” She smiled in amusement.

“Hi Miss Ess! I was trying an spearmint..” Lily giggled, when Ess’ expression when dumbfounded.

“ A what?”

“A spearmint! Jason said that he read that animals and people…who are good…sense someone is good and you can tell this by if yawning and seeing if that animal or person does it too.” Lily lifted her head proudly as if she were giving a lesson on morality.

“OOooh…an experiment.” Ess laughed and nodded, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she listened to Lily’s explanation.

“Dat’s what I said, Miss Ess. An exspearmint. And it worked. Puppy yawned when I did.”

Ess fell silent for a few moments, watching the girl lovingly play with the Wolfhound. Thinking over the girl’s words, she began to understand what she was doing, a warm smile touching her eyes as she quietly appreciated the girl’s intelligence. Lily had a pretty good understanding of what Jason had explained to her, but Ess was familiar with what the boy had read and knew it was still quite a bit over the young girl’s head.

“It’s to tell..if someone has Empathy, Miss Lily. Do you know what Empathy is?” Ess sang softly, reaching over to ruffle up Puppy’s fur. Lily looked up at Essence and tilted her head in curiosity, staying silent to politely wait for the woman to finish.

“Um..well basically it’s..for example…Let’s pretend you fell and hurt your leg and I found you. I would feel bad and sad that you hurt yourself and want to help you. Your pain I don’t really feel, because I’m not hurt, but I see you’re in pain and I want to help it go away.I would want to take care of you.” Ess reached over and lifted the girl onto her lap as she spoke, running her fingers through her hair to separate and braid the loose strands.

“Sometimes. It’s understanding what someone else feels, even if you don’t feel it. Sometimes you do feel it too.” Ess snorted, shaking her head when Lily looked back at her a bit confused. “Ok..what if Puppy didn’t yawn back, what did Jason say that would have meant?”

Lily was thoughtfully quiet as Ess twisted six small braids; three on each side of Lily’s head, uniting them at the base of her neck where she began braiding those together into a much larger design. When Ess was finished, that was when Lily seemed to come to an answer.

“I think…it would mean that Puppy was bad. I think if someone didn’t care about me then they’d be mean. I’m a good girl and I like making people stuff and helping Jason and the other kids and Maga. I was sad that day your hands hurt Miss Ess and you couldn’t eat..so I helped. So..I have mapthy..”

“Empathy..” Ess corrected, brushing a few hairs from her eyes. “..Yes…you do. and you’re right…those who don’t..can be very mean..”

“You have empathy too then.” Lily smiled.

Essence giggled. “Why don’t you go find out if Mr Luckas does too? Go play your game with him…but don’t tell him why until after, ok?”

“Ok!” Lily jumped up with a small burst of energy and went to run off to find Luckas. “Miss Ess?” Lily paused in step and looked over at Essence with what could only be recognized as confidence. “…You know what?”

“What is it, Lily?”

“Mr. Luckas has to have empathy because he’s never mean to me.”

“Is that so? Well, you sure it’s not because he knows he’d get his butt whooped by a camp full of guardsmen and women if he were to be mean to you?”

There is a bit of a history to the scene I’m going to post below and to those of you who are reading, or participating in, SOF it may actually be posted there in the future although. Read at your own risk, although it contains no plot relevant anythings and it’s just something I wrote for cuteness sake. The history I spoke of, well… I’ll tell you guys about it in the end. 😉

——————

Luckas sighed, holding back a laugh. They had been doing this for a while now; Lily followed him around for a bit then stood in front of him, stared for a few seconds, and then yawned vigorously. After some time of making the girl chase him down for this; with no explanation as to why whatsoever, Luckas finally stopped trying to get away and just sat down by the oak, compliant, watching as she stared…